Good morning! The incredible stupidity and obtuseness of most government bureaucrats and “civil servants” is on display this week, across the world.

Teachers, by their very nature, are NOT supposed to be too sensitive to criticism: they received so much from students and often with little or no justification. Of course, like many other virtues of teachers, the modern, unionized teacher has totally lost their ability to deal with criticism, even something as mild as the latest cover of Time Magazine, which speaks of how difficult it is to get rid of rotten apples in the government-run, tax-funded schools. Of course, these are precisely the teachers which Time is talking about: teachers so incompetent and uncomfortable actually teaching students that they migrate to bottom-feeders, parasites on other teachers who have been brainwashed into thinking that they must be in a union. And that unions in 2014 do ANY good whatsoever.

In Canada, bureaucrats in finance offices of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland-Labrador were already in a tizzy over $85/barrel oil, since they will lose billions in tax revenue from the drop in oil prices and they did their budgets based on much more rosy prices (at least from OPEC’s view). But they will get more upset, as Goldman Sachs predicts that crude oil in North America will go for $70/barrel in 2015. Of course, since it already dropped briefly below $80/barrel on Monday morning, Goldman Sachs is probably high. Meanwhile, in Southwestern Colorado, gasoline prices are within a dime of $3/gallon, which to my opinion is STILL about $2 too much. In Southeastern South Dakota, gasoline is down to $2.789, which is good also. As I’ve reported earlier, many people believe that oil will have to drop to less than $60/barrel in order to impact the economy of North Dakota badly, so there is a ways to go.

Mama’s Note: How can it impact the actual economy badly? I mean, absent more government insanity, of course. It will certainly reduce the amount of taxes and fees collected, and probably make some oil production no longer profitable, but the actual economy will be much improved as people have more money to spend on other things and business grows or improves to meet those needs. Yes, some people may lose jobs in the oil fields, but others will find housing and food prices drop so non oil related employment is more attractive. It’s a mistake to think that any one industry or sector of the economy is the only one that counts. And yes, I know that anyone reading this probably knows that as well as I do. 🙂

The University of Michigan could care less about wasting the money that students and their parents – and taxpayers – give them to supposedly pay for an education. Instead, they spend $400,000 to relocate a tree. Yes, a 250-year-old tree, but really?

I didn’t mention Ebola at all yesterday, but the world Ebola Scare Map has a lot more spots on it this week, stretching across North America and Africa and now moving into Asia. But what would be useful would be a map showing where all the panicked bureaucrats and politicians are located, as my inbox continues to fill with warning messages. Lawyers and nazgul (judges) are getting into the act now, as we see in New Jersey where a supposedly benevolent nurse has decided that the risk of her spreading the disease upon her return from Liberia is less important than her personal travels to where ever. Or so one side of the fuss says. Of course, it could be that she just isn’t buying into the hype, along with the doctor in NYC who considered his bowling nights more important than some antiquated oath to protect patients. (Again, what the media is crowing, at least.) And Ebola has become yet another tug-of-war between federal and state agencies and politicians vying to demonstrate how essential and wise and protective they are (I AM trying to make readers gag with these words). I see this as two totally incompetent (and probably drunk) drivers fighting over the wheel of the school bus filled with children. The only reason that the children are in danger in the first place is because they’ve been forced to ride in the school bus.

I continue to pay close attention to this, and right now, my thoughts are that we have two real problems with Ebola. First, there is the very real threat of government and public overreaction and use of Ebola as an excuse to implement still more police state measures: quarantines, no-knock “health inspections” and travel controls of all kinds. Public overreaction could include attacks on locations believed to have victims, and other mob actions, plus things like “forting-up” and therefore disrupting communities. Second, there is the potential for using Ebola as a weapon, against both the Fifty States and other Western (and Eastern) nations. While most of the stories talk about use of suicide volunteers who are infected and then work to spread it as widely as possible, either before or after they die, it is also possible to spread it through various other means, and claims in the last few days that the virus can survive on surfaces for several weeks (under the right conditions) make it more likely that – stupid as they are – some anti-American or anti-Western groups (or even a lone wolf) will decide to make their mark.

The thing to consider is that on an individual and family or church basis, we CAN protect ourselves easily against this second threat, and against PART of the first threat: the major threat that requires coordinated action is the government part of the first threat: overreaction and as an excuse for more control, a better and “safer” police state. We must work together voluntarily as families and communities to protect ourselves against the threat of government, which has been around and done far more damage than ANY modern illness or disease. But to counter that threat, we do need to remember that bureaucrats, especially en masse, are as stupid and obtuse as the Islamic and other terrorists that infest the world.